Kansas City

"8, 9, 10, ready or not here I come," Jerome announced. Jerome Valeska was currently playing hide and seek with his best friend, Quinn Young, while their mothers were in the big tent practicing for the show in a few hours. Quinn was in the bushes covering her mouth, trying to keep herself from giggling. Quinn could hear his footsteps getting closer and closer. Then two arms reached out for her from behind and grabbed her shoulders, making her yelp in surprise.

"Found you," Jerome shouted, as Quinn's face came into view.

"Nu-uh," Quinn teased as she quickly pulled herself away from Jerome and tried to run away.

Jerome quickly caught her waist and started tickling her, making her go limp in his arms.

"Jerome, stop, please!" Quinn gasped laughing.

"Say that I won!" Jerome chuckled as he kept tickling her stomach.

"Okay, okay, you win." Quinn admitted through hiccup giggles.

"Now that wasn't so hard," Jerome smirked, as he finally stopped and let Quinn catch her breath, she pretended to be mad at Jerome, but she couldn't stop smiling.

Quinn Young was raised in the circus, along with her two best friends, Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, who were only a couple years older than her. Her mother was an acrobat in the show and her father worked at one of the food stands. She also had an older sister, but she moved in with her boyfriend, so she was never around which was completely fine by Quinn and the twins, because she was a snotty brat.

"Quinn!" shouted an obnoxious voice.

They turned around to the direction of the voice, Quinn sighed deeply knowing her father needed her for something, "He always has to ruin everyone's fun. I'm sorry Jerome, but I better go see what he wants, because if I don't, he'll continue yelling and his voice sounds like a screaming goat."

Jerome chuckled lightly, "So does my mom."

"I'll come find you later and then we can play tag." Quinn told him.

Jerome gave Quinn a soft smile and nodded. Quinn smiled back and softly said, "Thank you," and headed towards the stands.

About an hour later, Quinn was walking around the circus grounds with an irritated look on her face. It turned out that her father wanted her to hold an old wobbly ladder for him while he put up a sign on one of the stands.

"Ugh, he wouldn't have this problem if he wasn't so cheap and buy a more safe ladder," Quinn muttered annoyed, "Not to mention a little exercise would do him some good. What a lardbutt!"

Quinn was so irritated with her father she wasn't paying attention when she bumped into someone else, making them fall over. Quinn saw it was Jerome's twin brother, Jeremiah.

"Ouch," Jeremiah said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, Jeremiah, I'm so sorry," Quinn exclaimed standing up and picking up what she made him drop on the ground, which Quinn noticed that they looked like more maze designs.

Jerome and Jeremiah may have been twins, but it was easy to tell them apart, besides that Jeremiah wore glasses. Jerome's hair was usually unkempt and messy and his clothes were a bit wrinkly, while Jeremiah liked to keep his hair and clothes neat and well-balanced.

"I'm really sorry for bumping into you," Quinn apologized again, "I just had something on my mind." Then before handing his drawings back to him, she threw her arms around Jeremiah, and says, "By the way, Happy Birthday, Miah!"

"Thanks," Jeremiah replies, hugging Quinn back.

"Where are you going?" Jeremiah asked.

"I'm looking for Jerome. Have you seen him?" Quinn asked.

Jeremiah gave a deep frown when Quinn said that she was looking for his brother, but with reluctance he pointed in a direction. "I saw him back at the trailer."

"Thank you so much, Miah," Quinn said with a soft smile, and was about to head in the direction, but Jeremiah grabbed her hand with his own to stop her.

"And Quinn, please don't tell Jerome you've spoken to me," Jeremiah tells her.

"What? Why?" Quinn asked with a confused look.

Jeremiah gave her a sad sigh, "Because he likes you."

"What's wrong with that? You like me too, don't you?" Quinn asked not seeing what the problem is.

"Yes, of course I like you a lot and I care about you too," Jeremiah insisted, "But he wouldn't like it if he knew I was talking with you."

Quinn just shrugged her shoulders, not seeing the big deal, said, "Fine, I won't mention that I talk to you, I promise."

"Thank you Quinn," Jeremiah smiles, before letting go of her hand nervously.

"I'll see you around, Miah. Once again, Happy Birthday!" Quinn smiled, before giving Jeremiah one last hug and then she left to find Jerome.

When Quinn reached Jerome's and Jeremiah's trailer, she noticed Mr. Cicero, the blind fortune teller, slowly walking away from Jerome. As Quinn started walking over to him, he sees her, his eyes are filled with sadness. Her mind wandered to Lila Valeska, Jerome's and Jeremiah's mother, and a very cruel and awful woman. Quinn's mother calls her a word that she would never use in front of the children and she also calls her a few other things.

When Quinn got closer, Jerome quickly wipes away the tears from his face so Quinn doesn't seem him crying and avoids eye contact with her, while his whole body was shaking on the ground.

"Jerome?" Quinn tried, her voice filled with worry and concern as she sits down next to him. When she gently puts a hand on his shoulder he looks up at her she notices bruises on his face and blood flowing through his nose.

"Oh my God," Quinn whispered, horrified at the sight of Jerome's battered and bruised face.

"Don't worry, I'm fine Quinn. Really," he insisted, as his cheeks flushed bright red, even though Quinn would never judge him for something like this.

"We both know that's not true, Jerome," Quinn frowned sadly. "It's okay, you can tell me."

"My mom's been messing around with some guy," Jerome muttered sadly.

"That's it! You're staying with me," Quinn decides, "And if your mom and my dad have a problem with it, who cares."

"That wouldn't be possible," Jerome told her sadly.

"But Jerome, I hate it when she hurts you like this," Quinn told him with an upset look.

"She also forgot about my birthday today. I'm nine, and she doesn't even care," Jerome sniffed with more tears running down his face. "And Mr. Cicero said that this world doesn't care about me or anyone else and it was better to realize that now."

Quinn pulled out her handkerchief from jacket pocket and gave it to Jerome, who whispered, thanks. She then wrapped her arms around Jerome in a protective manner.

"Jerome, if she doesn't care about your birthday, screw her, she's just an awful person spreading sadness and like my mom told me her life will end miserably someday. As for what Mr. Cicero said, well, he's wrong, because there's someone who does care about you and your birthday," Quinn said with a small smile.

"Who's that?" Jerome asked, looking up with a tear-stained, but hopeful face.

Quinn gave a small hint of mischief in her brown eyes, as she got up and held out her hand for Jerome and said, "Come with me to my trailer and I'll show you. We need to clean you up anyway."

Jerome looked up at Quinn and grabbed her hand with a smile on his face.

The first thing they did when they got to Quinn's trailer was clean the blood off his face and Quinn made an ice pack for Jerome to use on his bruised face.

Quinn then grabbed a chair to help her reach the refrigerator were two white boxes were sitting and pulled one of them off the refrigerator.

"Ta-da," Quinn said gleefully, as she set the box down in front of him and opened the lid to reveal a chocolate cake that was written badly in chocolate, Happy Birthday Jerome! Quinn had also made another cake for Jeremiah, except his cake had white frosting and spelled, Happy Birthday Jeremiah!

Quinn looked down at the table nervously, playing with her fingernails, "I know, I know the writing is awful, but I didn't have enough money to buy any of the cakes I saw, so my mom gave me the cake recipe and when I tried to-"

Jerome quickly cut her off by pulling her into a big hug, a few seconds later Quinn wrapped her arms around Jerome too.

"This cake is amazing. Thank you," Jerome sighs happily, still not letting go.

"Sure thing," Quinn smiled softly as she gently ran her fingers through his ginger hair.

They pull away from each other, Jerome gives her another small smile but then he frowned. Jerome's emotions and his mood would change like clockwork, something that Quinn would sometimes notice, but who would blame him? His mother was abusive towards him, some of her lovers were abusive too, so was his uncle, and Jeremiah never did anything to help him, which would bother Quinn. Growing up in a circus, especially with them each having a terrible parent, was very hard for Quinn and the twins. Claire, Quinn's mother, would do her best to help her daughter and even her two friends, but sometimes with how her job as an acrobat would get stressful on her and since Jerome and Jeremiah weren't her kids there was only so much she could do. David, Quinn's father, just didn't care about Quinn; he only cared about her snotty older sister and wanted Quinn gone from his life.

Quinn's face fell a little, "What's wrong? I thought you said you liked the cake?"

"It's not that, it's just, I wish we didn't have to get drag through the circus," Jerome told Quinn sadly.

"I know, I hate it here too," Quinn agreed sighing sadly, "But one day we'll be able to leave this place behind for good; even if we don't leave at the same time, let's make a promise that we'll do everything to get the other person out of here."

Jerome's face lit up again as he smiled at Quinn, "Definitely."

"Why don't we get out of this place for the rest of the day and go somewhere fun in the city, I know Kansas City isn't too exciting, but we can find something to do or do you want to eat the cake now?" Quinn asked smiling back at Jerome.

"I would love that more than anything," Jerome said with a bright smile, "Let's go."

Quinn quickly closed the box lid and put Jerome's birthday back on top of the refrigerator, and then she and Jerome headed off into the city to spend the rest of day there together.